The real life stories of the many women suffering with undiagnosed and/or untreated depression go unreported, until one day a desperate mother drowns her five young children in a bathtub. While this is a rare event, it underscores the seriousness of the disease known simply as postpartum depression.

It is estimated that one out of 10 women in the United States take antidepressants, many of them while pregnant or breastfeeding. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 1995 and 2002 the use of antidepressants rose 48%. Antidepressants are among the most prescribed drugs in the U.S. For many…

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I cultivated my sweet tooth at a young age, born into a family where Hostess Sno Balls and Twinkies were the preferred after-school snack. I could have/should have washed down the crumbly treats with a glass of milk, but chose instead an ice cold Coke—21 teaspoons of sugar, the equivalent of 90 grams or 450 calories. Is it any wonder that my siblings and I struggle with weight gain?

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that women consume no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day (100 calories or 25 grams). For men the recommendation is no more than…

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The day will come when U.S. mothers can truly feel safe breastfeeding their babies and young children anywhere, anytime, anyplace. I likely won’t live long enough to see the culmination of the cultural transformation that is currently underway in America, but I am confident that my children will one day view breastfeeding not as best, optimal, perfect, or ideal, but simply as normal. And I know that ultimately their children, my grandchildren, will reap the benefits.

While many find the slow pace of change frustrating, age confers a level of patience and confidence in knowing that measured, thoughtful change is more often…

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Employed by the Red Cross after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, text messaging contributed to record donations. In less dire circumstances but indicative of the popularity of text messaging, millions text their vote for their favorite American Idol. But what can text messaging do for you?

With text4baby, the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) is flipping the text message and using it to help expectant and new moms.

The familiar ping, ding, or ringtone sounds out from your handset:

“Give your baby a good start by not drinking alcohol, smoking or using drugs. For help call 800-784-8669 (smoking); 800-662-4357 (drugs & alcohol).”

“Feeling…

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Both you and your baby are going to sleep terribly, possibly for months, so you might as well get used to the idea.

But don’t freak out—this is totally normal. All you have to do is make sure everyone lives through this tumultuous time. Pretend there’s a zombie war going on outside and your priority is basic survival. Do whatever it takes to stay alive. Believe that this too shall pass.

For those of you in the midst of intense sleep deprivation, you would probably like to take your computer and throw it at my head right now. No one wants to…

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Although the incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) decreased significantly after the launch of the Back to Sleep campaign in 1994, SIDS is still the leading cause of death in children 1 month to 1 year of age. While the cause of SIDS remains a mystery, researchers recently identified a defect in the brain of infants who died of SIDS that may eventually lead to early detection of babies at risk for SIDS.

Published in the February 3, 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers compared the brainstems of 41 infants who died of SIDS with 7 infants who died…

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Perhaps Andrew Wakefield, MD didn’t realize that his 1998 study erroneously linking vaccinations to autism would ignite a decade long controversy. But he should have. If not for the media frenzy fomented by high profile celebrities, the scientific method might have triumphed long ago. Journalists should know better. Yet given the scope of the damage, any claim of vindication would ring hollow. In the end, science prevailed, but at what cost?

After the United Kingdom General Medical Council (GMC) described the actions of Andrew Wakefield, MD, and two of his colleagues as dishonest and irresponsible, The Lancet, a respected medical journal,…

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The expression, “You are what you eat,” takes on new meaning, given the results of a recent study linking soy formula in babies with uterine fibroids in adults. Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors of the uterus that commonly cause pelvic pain, vaginal bleeding, and fertility problems. Approximately one-fourth of women develop uterine fibroids which are the leading cause of hysterectomy (removal of the uterus).

Method
Twenty thousand white women between 35 and 59 years of age participated in the study. The women were selected from a larger group of 50,000 white women who are part of the Sister Study, a long-term review of…

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Breastfeeding keeps babies healthy, but breastfeeding can also make babies sick. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2008 estimated that 430,000 children under the age of 15 were newly infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Most infections were transmitted from mother-to-child during pregnancy, labor, birth, or while breastfeeding. It is estimated that breastfeeding may account for one-third to one-half of all cases of mother-to-child-transmission.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that HIV-infected women in the United States not breastfeed. However, in countries where safe alternatives to human milk are scarce and the risk of infant death from…

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Stephanie Sanders and Alex Bligh both had trouble with their milk supply in their early weeks of breastfeeding. After trying everything else, both turned to a drug called domperidone and found their supply quickly increased. Both were able to continue breastfeeding their children.

The difference? Alex lives in Dunedin, New Zealand, where she got a prescription from her doctor and had it filled at the pharmacy. Stephanie lives in northeast Georgia and had to sneak around, ordering her supply from the internet—from a company in New Zealand. The pills subtly arrived in an unmarked box.

FDA: Not okay
Stephanie and other American women…

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Whenever my Dad came home from work to find my siblings and me glued to the television, he would call us a bunch of “vidiots,” turn off the TV, and usher us outside to run around until dark. For much of my childhood, TV was limited to one hour per night – with Saturday morning cartoons or a movie on the weekends if we were good – and that was it.

Although I find it slightly ironic that I am writing this on my laptop (equipped with high-speed wireless internet) while listening to a CD (through the TV, which is hooked…

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Haiti needs a lot of things right now. But for some, nothing is more important or more needed than human milk.

The Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC), International Lactation Consultant Association/United States Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA/USLCA), and La Leche League International (LLLI) are jointly issuing an urgent call for human milk donations for premature infants in Haiti, as well as sick and premature infants in the United States.

A press release announcing the need for milk noted that this week the first shipment of human milk from mothers in the United States will be…

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